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Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Fixing Major Problems: Step Two of Revising

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Finally, after many months (or what feels like years) I have finished the first read through. And I am rejoicing! That is probably the most painful thing I have ever had to do. I just wanted to rush through it and start revising. But I couldn't. The most painful part was towards the end when I had basically figured out all the main problems of the story, yet still had to read to the very end. Hopefully, this will be the most painful read through and the next couple won't be so treacherous.

I learned a lot, though. So that's the good side of things. Unfortunately, the things I learned will be very time consuming and hard to fix. Good thing school is winding down for the year. :)

Okay, onto step two of revising:

Major Problems:

Major problems are not grammar, spelling, word choice, or any of the other itty bitty details. Those come last. At this point, I'm still looking at the whole picture.

So after I wrote down all the problems that I noticed, I sorted them all into chart by chapters. In each chart, there are three columns- one for things to add, another for things to remove, and the last for things to fix.

I've already gone through several revisions for the first chapter due to the contest I am a finalist in *insert girly squeal here*. Since I had to submit in a proposal I had to go back and revise the first chapter. And that was particularly painful. Revising the beginning required a lot of re-writing, coming up with names, introducing characters, foreshadowing events, etc. But I did it. I had about three or four people edit it (a new person for each set of revisions) and even showed someone outside of my family and friends the chapter. Scary!

Anyways, after I corrected each thing, I marked it off my list, put it into the binder in Scrivener titled "Done" and moved on to the next chapter.
Even though I go through each chapter separately, I tend to tackle the bigger problems first, such as, going back and adding the MC's thoughts and feelings. Once I have those off my chest, the rest of the revisions are like a piece of cake.

And that's pretty much all there is to fixing the major problems. Easier said than done, though. ;)

By the way, I'm planning on releasing some information about my novel soon. The only reason I'm hesitant to is because I don't have it patented. I trust all you guys, but- you never know. Until I have confirmed how it will be published, I won't be posting anything specific about the novel. Be patient and I promise the information will come. :)